TAYLOR, EDWARD THOMPSON (1793-1871). An American preacher, widely known as 'Father Taylor.' Ile was born in Richmond, Va.; was taken in charge by a lady near that city; ran away to sea at the age of seven, and for ten years was a sailor. In the War of 1812 he served on a privateer, the Black Hawk, was captured, and was confined first at Melville Island and then in Dartmoor Prison, where he became the chaplain to his fellow prisoners, having joined the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1811. After his release from prison he was successively a peddler of tin and ironware and a buyer of rags, and a farmer; was regularly licensed to preach in 1814; and in 1319 became an itinerant Metho dist minister. In 1829 he was chosen minister of the newly established Seamen's Bethel in Bos ton, which position he held until 1868, when he resigned. He visited Europe in 1832 and Pales tine in 1S42, and was chaplain to the United States frigate sent with relief to Ireland during the famine of 1846. By his warmth of heart, his
native wit, and his natural eloquence he gained a remarkable influence over his sailor auditors, and throughout the United States he was re garded as in some respects the most eloquent preacher of his day. Numerous anecdotes have been told to illustrate his wit and his power as a public speaker, and accounts of his eloquence may be found in Miss Martineau's Retrospect of Western Travel, in Buckingham's A inerica, Hts torical, Statistic and Descriptive, in Dickens's American Notes, in Miss Bremer's The Homes of the New World, and in Mrs. Jameson's Common place Book of Thoughts, Memories, and Fancies. Walt Whitman spoke of him as an "essentially perfect orator." Consult Haven and Russell, Father Taylor, the Sailor Preacher (Boston, 1872).